Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard tosses the ball to the pitcher covering first to retire St. Louis Cardinals' Matt Carpenter in third inning of a baseball game Saturday, June 21, 2014, in St. Louis. The Cardinals won 4-1. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Chris Lee)

ST. LOUIS — The Phillies finally had their road run short-circuited Saturday afternoon. It took the undisputed best right-handed pitcher in the National League to wrestle them down and end their five-game winning streak.

Adam Wainwright, seemingly on his way to a fourth top-3 finish in the N.L. Cy Young Award voting in the last five seasons, became the second pitcher in the league to reach 10 victories, outdueling Cole Hamels in a 4-1 win for the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

Getting No. 10 across from Hamels was no easy task when you consider how Hamels performs when working against the best pitchers in the league. The best pitchers not named Hamels, Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay in the N.L. over the past five years have been Wainwright, Clayton Kershaw and Johnny Cueto. Entering the game, Hamels had made 12 starts opposite that trio. The Phillies were 10-2 in those games, and Hamels had a brilliant 1.97 ERA in those starts.

Hamels was terrific Saturday, as well. However, on his 120th pitch with one out in the eighth inning, Matt Holliday laced and RBI double to left-center, scoring Matt Carpenter, who had drawn a leadoff walk. That put the Cardinals up 2-1, and there seemed to be no doubt after the teams exchanged runs in the bottom of the second and top of the third innings that the first team to two was going to win it.

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You could get the sense after the game that Hamels does, in fact, take these matchups against premier pitchers with heightened seriousness. The southpaw declined comment as he chillily walked out of the clubhouse.

Although Wainwright initially tried to downplay the personal rivalry starting pitchers have when they go head-to-head, it didn’t take much to get him to drop that canard.

“What’s he against me?” Wainwright asked when told of Hamels’ numbers against him, Kershaw and Cueto. When told the win Saturday evened his record against Hamels at 2-2, he nodded his head and said, “Yeah, that’s what I thought” to the laughs of the press corps.

“Actually, he could have had one more,” said Wainwright, who had been skipped his last scheduled start when he felt some discomfort in his elbow. “I had only given up one run and he had pitched into the ninth and given up zero runs and was going for a shutout and we tied it.

“So, we’ve had some good battles. Both of us knew. I spoke to him (Thursday) a little bit, and we both knew we were in for a battle. That’s why we get the big bucks, right?”

Part of Hamels’ frustration and Wainwright’s jocularity might have to do with how their teams have performed in their starts. The Cardinals have won 12 of Wainwright’s 15 starts this season, while the Phillies have won just four of Hamels’ 12 starts, although they had won each of his previous three, during which he had put together a 24 2/3 inning scoreless streak that ended when Hamels started the third with a walk of Yadier Molina, Jhonny Peralta hit a double down to left field that Domonic Brown was sluggish to track down and Matt Adams lofted a sacrifice fly to right.

The Phillies countered in the third largely due to Hamels’ bat. After Cody Asche led off the third with a single to center, Hamels executed a nice hit-and-run for a single that put runners at the corners. Jimmy Rollins’ sacrifice fly scored Asche.

Hamels also doubled off Wainwright, as he had two of the Phils’ six hits. Wainwright countered Hamels’ double in the top half of the fifth with a two-bagger of his own in the bottom half

Yes, they might be a little competitive.

“Yeah, he was the reason they scored the first run, a good hit-and-run play there to get first and third with 1-2-3 (hitters) coming up,” Wainwright said. “At that point I decided, I have to get outs. But he was the big reason they got that first run, then he drove that ball into the left-center field gap (in the fifth). I thought he was taking first pitch so I laid a fastball in there, and he surprised me. He’s a good hitter.”

After the tie was snapped in the eighth, the Cardinals would get two more unearned runs after Jake Diekman entered, although one came around when Carlos Ruiz allowed a passed ball, then couldn’t hold onto the ball for a play at the plate on Holliday, and the other scored on a sacrifice fly.

Game, set, match, Wainwright.

“You can feel when there’s a good back and forth going” he said. “I knew coming in it was going to be a tough game. Cole has been pitching really, really well and their team had won five in a row, playing great baseball. I knew it would be tough, but I also knew if execute my pitches it doesn’t matter who I’m pitching against. I’m facing eight hitters in the lineup that I’ve largely faced.”